July 2012

July 31, 2012

In a book store and even online you have only a split second to capture the interest of a browser. The first thing they notice is the cover image. If that grabs them there’s a good chance they will take the next step. In a store that would be picking up the book and looking at the back cover. Online it might be reading the brief description. If they take that step they may or may not buy, but if they don’t they definitely won’t buy.

Self-published books have a reputation for having terrible covers. Too often the author uses artwork done by a relative who “paints a little” or “was quite good at art in school.” The result may look good to the author, just as every baby is beautiful to its parents. However, to an impartial observer the cover often says “amateur.”

There are companies that will create cover artwork for you. Unfortunately that’s no guarantee that you’ll get a good result. For instance, a company called PublishNation offers to format your book, design a cover, get you an ISBN number and list your book on Amazon, all for either £95 (in a recent ad) or £75 (price on their website). That’s about $100 to $150, a fair price for the service. However, here are some of their covers (I assume they created these for the authors):

Tip number one: Make your title easy to read. Here they've gone for the ye old typography because it matches the story. As you can see, "Wembley" is easy to read because the contrast between it and the background is strong. The "King Arthur goes" part isn't, because although there's a strong contrast in terms of color, they're both roughly the same tone. You don't really need to understand color theory to get this right, you just need to reduce the image to the size Amazon uses. If you can read it easily with a quick glance, it's fine. Otherwise, change it.

* When deciding on the color of type and background, think light vs. dark. You can have light lettering on a dark background, or dark lettering on a light background.

* Keep the background consistent in tone. On this cover part of the author's name is easy to make out because it's against a light background; however, other parts aren't because they're against darker bits of the figure's outfit.

Tip number two: Find or create an appropriate image. This isn't the worst one I've ever seen, but it doesn't quite work, either. The background doesn't suggest Wembley and King Arthur has that glassy-eyed look of characters created in Poser.

By the way, I'm not saying anything negative about these books themselves, just commenting on the cover images.

Here's the next one. Before reading my comments on it, what do you think could be improved?

First, it violates rule number one. The title and all the other text is far too small to read easily.

Tip number 2: Pick an image that has an impact. Here the cover features two shots of airplanes and a larger image of evacuee children. (In case you couldn't make out the title of the book, it's "The Evacuee Experience.")

Here's a quick reworking:

I have used only an evacuee children photo and worked with it in Photoshop to zoom in on a smaller number of kids and heightened the contrast to make the image eaiser to read. (I had to use a different image but it was similar before I zoomed in, eliminated distracting background elements, etc.). Again, we're concerned at this point with capturing people's attention within a second or less.

I chose a typewriter font because it suggests the bureaucratic element of processing all these children.

Instead of putting the author's name under the title and subtitle I've positioned it at the bottom. I've put a grey rectangle behind it. Without that, the variable tones of the background would have made it more difficult to read.

Let's look at one more. Again, what do you think could be improved?

The title is easy to read, but in a very boring typeface. The image has little impact because there's nothing going on in it, no clear point of interest, and not a lot of relevance to the topic. The sorcerer may well live in a castle with walls like that, but so what? The title is good--I want to know why the sorcerer is repentant, what has he done? But the image doesn't build on that initial curiosity.

Tip 3: Combine the title and the image to create a dynamic effect. On this cover the big brown burgundy box that is the background of the top part is dead space. It's neat but it's boring. Here's a very quick reworking of that part to show you what I mean:

I'm not suggesting this is a great cover yet, but I think by choosing a better typeface, integrating the title rather than blocking it off, and by putting it at a slight angle, we get a more dynamic effect. Also the larger amount of black sky might suggest that whatever the sorcerer has done has led to something dark and threatening.

I hope these two authors don't mind me playing around with their covers a bit. Again, I'm not being critical of the books, just saying the current covers could be better.

When it's time to create your cover, I suggest you find a good graphic designer. You can start with a Google search for "book cover designers." Take a look at samples of their work.

If you like those, hire the designer and ask them to send you thumbnails (small sketches) of the designs they suggest for your book. Of course you can have input but if you're hiring an expert, don't second-guess them. People don't tell their doctors how to do their job, or their car mechanics, but designers will confirm that clients often act as though they, not the designer, know what's best or will suggest a color because "it's my favorite."

The bottom line: your book cover is your most important ambassador. Don't let your content down by packaging it badly.

(You'll find more helpful information on how to market your book or ebook in "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and also in "Marketing for Entrepreneurs," published by Pearson. For 100 inspirational case studies of how people have marketed themselves and their products or services, get "Do Something Different," published by Virgin Business Books with an introduction by Sir Richard Branson. All are available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

July 30, 2012

If you get stuck, who are you going to call? One good option is to ask your characters for help.

What I suggest is interviewing your characters. Each of them wants something (even if sometimes it’s just to be left alone). They want something in general, and they want something in the scene you are writing.

Let’s take an example: You’re writing a scene for a romantic comedy in which Brad and Jane meet on a blind date. You’ve written some good dialogue for their first awkward moments and you know that you don’t want them to get along too well at this first meeting, but you’re not sure exactly what to have happen in the body of the scene.

In this case some good questions to ask both of your characters would be:

what’s the best thing that could happen on this date?

what’s the worst thing that could happen?

what do you think the other person wants?

What do you find attractive and unattractive about them?

Those questions alone might well be enough to get you going. If he says the worst thing would be if she turns out to be clingy, but you don’t want her to actually be clingy (after all, we want them to get together at the end), what could happen in the scene that would give him that (wrong) impression? Maybe she's afraid of spiders and there's one crawling along the wall; she's embarrassed by this phobia but whenever the bug crawls near to her she can't help grabbing Brad's arm and moving closer to him--to be farther away from the spider, which he can't see.

Or maybe she says the worst thing would be to have him be one of those driven types who check their phones for new messages every thirty seconds. If we want Brad to do this even though that's not his usual habit, we need to plant a reason for him to check his phone on this occassion, and make it something too embarrassing or personal for him to be willing to reveal to her since they just met.

This interview method works for bigger plot points, too. Ask your characters what they want, what they fear, what their secrets are and you’ll soon have enough raw material to get you back on track.

PS: If you don't know their desires, fears, and secrets, spend some time fleshing out the characters, then return to the problem.

(If you want friendly guidance from the greatest writers of all time, get my book, "Your Creative Writing Masterclass." It contains writing advice from Dickens, Twain, Austen, as well as modern masters like Kurt Vonnegut and Stephen King, along with my tips on how to apply it to your own writing. You can get the book from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

July 29, 2012

What would it be like to be able to talk to your 12-year-old self? Jeremiah Macdonald did--well, sort of. When he was 12 he made a videotape in which he talked about how it would be fun to talk to his future self. Twenty years later he intercut that tape with footage of himself as an adult to make it seem that it's an actual interview. Very clever and fun to watch (it's about 3 and a half minutes long):

A press release issued by Kwantlen Polytechnic University (Canada) starts this way: "Kwantlen Polytechnic University instructor Ailinn Hunter, author of Stay, a 2002 fictional novel, is having her novel made into a film."

I've seen that a lot lately: "fiction novel" or "fictional novel." A novel IS a work of fiction by definition. To say "fiction novel" is like saying "a cooking book about cooking."

I'm sure Hunter didn't see the press release before it went out but it's ironic that the press release goes on to laud the creative writing department. Maybe the person writing the press releases needs a refresher course.

July 26, 2012

In an interview in The Bookseller, best-selling author Celia Ahern (P.S. I Love You) said she used to write through the night if she felt inspired. Becoming a mother changed the demands on her time.

She said, "I didn't think that anything creative could be done from 9am to 5pm to be perfectly honest. I didn't think you could force inspiration, but it actually works for me."

Now she keeps those hours Monday through Friday and she actually wroter her latest novel, One Hundred Names, more quickly than when she was on the more bohemian schedule.

Other writers have a different problem: they have a 9-to-5 job and feel unsure whether they can fit writing into the time left over. There are plenty of examples of successful authors who did that until they had enough success to go full time with their writing.

It suggests that our ability to be creative is much more flexible than we may think; it could be our attachment to romantic ideas about writing that holds us back.

If you'd like to change your writing routine, I have three tips:

1) Withhold judgment of the work you do on the new schedule. Give it at least three or four weeks before you go back to assess the writing. It's too easy to assume that a random bad patch is due to the schedule change.

2) Experiment. As you implement the new schedule notice what works and what doesn't. If getting up early to do a half-hour of writing doesn't work after you've given it a fair try, come up with a different alternative. It could be that staying up a half hour later, or devoting half of your lunch hour to writing, or putting in longer sessions on the weekends are more productive for you.

3) Make changes that support your new times. If you're going to get up a half hour earlier, for instance, also go to bed a half hour earlier. Otherwise sleep deprivation will kick in eventually. If you're planning to write for half of your lunch hour you may need to find a suitable place away from your desk, whether that's a nearby coffee shop or your company's conference room.

It's good to start with a positive attitude but even without one you may find that you are more flexible than you thought.

(If you want to find innovative methods for making the best use of your time, get my book, "Focus: use the power of targeted thinking to get more done. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

July 25, 2012

My local paper featured a breathless article last week about the young author whose two books had been “snapped up” by a publisher and are set for international success. When I say young, I mean young: she’s six years old.

I wish her every success, but it’s only in the final paragraph that we learn the name of the publisher. It’s a self-publishing company that will “snap up” anything you send it, provided you’re ready to pay their fees. The international distribution just means they put your book on their website.

It’s a harmless enough story except that some aspiring authors who have had a lot of rejections read articles like this and conclude that if a six year old can get a publishing deal and they can’t, maybe they’re not cut out to be authors.

If you ever find your confidence dented by such stories, or ones about “multi-book deals” (the reality of which often is that if the first one doesn’t sell well, there won’t be any more), dig a bit deeper into the facts.

(For accurate information about the writer's life, check out my book, "Your Writing Coach," published by Nicholas Brealey and available from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

July 24, 2012

Yes, it's Marketing Tuesday again and because writers who want to get their work seen have to be marketers as well, here's number two in my ten essential strategies and tips:

2: MAKE IT DIFFERENT

You've probably encountered the terms USP, unique selling proposition. It refers to what makes your product or service unique--in a way that will help you sell it.

This can be quite difficult to identify sometimes. If yours doesn't have a USP at the moment, your creative challenge is to come up with one.

MAKE SURE IT'S RELEVANT

Do notice the qualifier: " [different] in a way that will help you sell it." A gimmick is not enough, it has to be relevant to the product or service itself. I see a lot of marketers forgetting this.

For instance, I know of one screenwriter who had his query letter delivered by a GorillaGram (a guy dressed as a gorilla). Now if he had been pitching "Planet of the Apes" that might have been a good idea. However, the story had nothing to do with gorillas or anything related to them. That made the GorillaGram a empty gimmick. Different, but not in a good way.

YOU'RE A STORY TELLER...SO TELL A STORY

One example of powerful story telling is from a company that sells subscriptions to financial newsletters. They always couch their sales pitch as a dramatic story. For instance, instead of just offering you an energy stocks newsletter that will help identify possible disasters, they might describe the day the Middle East erupts into a major war...the region's oil stops flowing...the major cities of the world grind to a halt...food has no way to get to markets...you are alone in your house, your children are hungry, but there is no bread on the table... You get the idea.

They are also skilled at making mundane things sound exotic and secret by giving them a different name. If I were to adopt this method I might tell you about "The Author's Key." I might describe this as the document that determines whether you are successful (and I'd tell a little story about what this success would be like) or a failure (and I'd tell you a little story about how horrible that will feel). I'd say that this document is like having a key that unlocks the doors of the world's top agencies...production companies...publishing houses. I'd never tell you the mundane name of this document (have you guessed it yet?) but I'd offer to sell you a report that will reveal all of its secrets. Truth be told, often I find that method quite annoying but it has made them a fortune.

If your product or service actualliy does have a story that can be the USP by all means tell it. If you can give it a different descriptive name without being dishonest that also can work.

LOOK FOR SUPERLATIVES

Is your product the most anything? The shortest? The longest? The longest in the making? The most quickly written or produced? The most expensive? The cheapest? The first time two paticular elements have been mixed (e.g., "Pride and Prejudice"/Zombies)? The first time in a long time that something has been done? The oldest? The youngest or newest?

FORMAT OR PACKAGING

If the product itself isn't very different, how about the way it's presented?

One author took pages of newspapers and blacked out most of the words; the ones that were not blacked out formed the content of his story.

A graphic novelist whose stories were about the inhabitants of an old house had the cover of her book die-cut so it appeared that we were looking through the house's windows.

ADD VALUE

These days many books have an associated website. Simply slapping up an "about" page and a blog, however, may not attract too many readers. Someone self-publishing an erotic novel might have a link to a website where readers can take a private quiz in order to get their kinkiness rating.

What can you offer people via another medium that adds value to their experience?

WHAT DIFFERENCES APPEAL TO YOU?

One way to get ideas regarding a good USP simply is to be aware of what differences attract your attention. What makes the products you enjoy different from others you could buy? Every time you become aware of one of the differences, consider whether and how you might take advantage of it with your products or services.

(A lot of creative writers stop being creative when it's time to market their work. One way to keep having more ideas all the time is to use the methods I describe in my most recent book, the second edition of "Creativity Now!" You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

July 23, 2012

As you write your novel, screenplay, article or short story look for ways to build in some surprises for your reader. It's a pleasant feeling to realize that what we thought was going to happen isn't what actually does (at least it's pleasant in books and films; in real life we may not appreciate it as much).

The surprise may be the way a man we'd assumed is a coward suddenly steps forward and shows some courage, or an unexpected turn of phrase, or a twist at the end of a story.

Of course the challenge isn't thinking of the surprise, but making it plausible despite not being predictable. That means that the moment when the coward shows courage has to be out of the ordinary. It may be that he's afraid of his own shadow but the one thing he cares about is his dog and when that's endangered he'll do whatever it takes to save it.

Or we find out that the car mechanic who suddenly spouts something from Shakespeare is attending night classes in literature because he's always felt held back by his limited education.

And whatever that twist ending is, it has to make sense when we look back over everything that went before.

The more crowded the marketplace, the more important it is to surprise people. For instance, printed magazines are facing a tremendous challenge from their electronic competitors. Some publications have responded with features that surprise and delight. Examples include Mono.Kultur, which features a different binding every issue, La Mas Bella, the formats of which have included a map, an apron, and a tapas-making kit, and MK Bruce/Lee, which comes in two versions (Lee for women, Bruce for men) and includes fold-out posters, stickers, and other goodies.

Whether it's the writing itself, or your query letters to agents, publishers or producers, or your blog--look for ways to surprise your readers and they'll come back for more.

(My book, "Do Something Different," contains 100 case studies of inexpensive and innovative ways people have marketed themselves and their products. You can apply the same principles. The book is published by Virgin Books and features an introduction by Richard Branson. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

Whenever somebody famous dies or makes the news somehow, my mailbox fills up with emails saying something like “What you can learn from Steve Jobs” or “What marketers can learn from Lady GaGa” or “The Seven Success Secrets of (fill in name)!” Quite often it is strongly implied that if we just copy the five or ten things they did differently, we can be just as successful as they are or were.

Here’s what we CAN’T learn from Steve Jobs, Lady GaGa, and whoever wins the most gold medals at the Olympics: how to be Steve Jobs, Lady GaGal or whoever wins the most gold medals at the Olympics.

Turning into who we are is a complicated process. I don’t know how much Steve Jobs, for instance, was affected by having been adopted, or by his new father's interest in electronics or by growing up in the Bay Area, home of several big electronics companies. One influence he mentioned himself was that taking a calligraphy class introduced him to the physical beauty of words, and that's why the early Macs had fonts that were much nicer than the ones on other computers.

Undoubtedly ten thousand or a hundred thousand other events and circumstances made Steve Jobs who he was.

If we copy a few of his principles, such as seeking simplicity in design, will we have his success? Will we enjoy the same things he did? Will we see the world the same way? Of course not.

The same goes for every other person we are encouraged to emulate. Interestingly, often it seems to be negative events, such as being bullied, or having a serious childhood illness, or losing a parent at an early age, that gave many of them the determination—sometimes to the point of obsession—to be a success. Others with similar histories crumbled under the pressure, or just made other choices about what's important.

Of course it’s worth looking at what methods successful people use or used that we might find useful as well and to be aware of what advice they offered others. That’s at the heart of my book, “Your Creative Writing Masterclass,” which contains the writing advice of classic and modern masters of writing. But it’s a menu, a smorgasboard from which you can pick and choose the elements that make sense to you. It's designed to help you discover your own style, your own voice.

The danger is that the person who reads that Jobs was a bully at work will decide that's the lesson. That worked for Jobs because he had the genius to back it up and other qualities that inclined many people to work for him despite that trait. Without those qualities, the person who apes the bullying will just be a jerk. It's not so prevalent now, but for quite a long time aspiring young writers assumed that drinking a lot was part of becoming a good writer because so many of the most successful ones were alcoholics. Of course for those who came to this conclusion the alcoholism was easier to attain than the success.

I think there’s really only one lesson all these people have for us:

Be yourself. It may or may not work out well, but it’s your best option.

(Another thing that makes sense is to focus on what you really want and use your time more effectively in order to get it. My book, "Use the power of targeted thinking to get more done", can help you do that. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)

July 20, 2012

The guest room at my flat is also a library with wonderful floor to ceiling shelves full to overflowing. Usually going in there is a joy but the other day I felt a little pang of sadness upon realizing that at my current rate of reading even if I live to a ripe old age I’m unlikely to have time to read all those books. That’s not even taking into account that I buy a few new ones every month.

That’s why a New Yorker online essay called “What George Orwell, Henry Miller, and John Waters Taught Me About What to Read Next,” by Maria Bustillos, caught my eye.

Her point was that personal recommendations are the best kind and other than those from your close friends it’s the ones of your favorite authors that count.

Her favorite writers include George Orwell, who was not a snob about literature. He pointed out, “The existence of good bad literature—the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one’s intellect simply refuses to take seriously—is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.”

He recommended the work of an author with whom I am totally unfamiliar: Ernest Bramah. Bustillos recommends Bramah’s Kai Lung series of novels over his Max Carrados detective series. Oh oh, I feel another book purchase coming on.

Here are three of my recommendations:

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, highly entertaining although totally unreliable. I see from the New Yorker essay this one was also on Henry Miller’s list, “The Hundred Books Which Influenced Me Most.” I recommend the Autobiography to any writer who wants to learn story telling from a master. Notice how he keeps your attention: starting a story but delaying the payoff, puffing himself up but once in a while laughing at himself, too, and passing off juicy gossip as news.

The Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T. E. Lawrence, aka Lawrence of Arabia. It’s his account (also unreliable in a places, some say) of leading Arab tribes against the Turks (who allied themselves with Germany) in World War I. If you read it and a bit about the Sykes Picot Treaty, you’ll understand everything about why the Middle East is the mess it is today. It's also beautifully written.

On a lighter note, Sick Puppy or any of Carl Hiaasen’s adult novels (adult as opposed to his books for kids, not erotic). His style is funny and frenetic, his stories set in a Florida being ravaged by big corporations and theme parks, his criminals not very bright and likely to lose a limb or two before the story is over. Perfect holiday reading. Even if you're not on holiday.

Feel free to list a book or two or three that you recommend highly, either in the comments below or via email to me at jurgenwolff@gmail.com. I know it may drive me to overload those shelves even more, but I’m willing to take that risk!

I love the John Waters quote the essay cites:

“Being rich is not about how many homes you own. It’s the freedom to pick up any book you want without looking at the price and wondering whether you can afford it.”

I remember wondering that a lot of times when I was a student and for a few years afterward. Usually I’d go for the book even if it meant dinner that evening would be another peanut butter sandwich or can of beans.

And now…I’m rich! Well, if we leave first editions and antiquarian books out of the equation.

July 19, 2012

Quill & Quire, Canada’s Magazine of Book News and Reviews, reports that Simon and Schuster will add QR codes to the back of every new book jacket starting later this year. If you scan the code it will lead you to an author page. There you can:

sign up for email alerts about the author’s personal appearances and new works

watch video interviews with the author

find out about and order the author’s other books

Of course they’ll also list the url so you can access the pages if you don’t have a code reader or smart phone.

QR codes have been around for a while but they don’t seem to have really caught on. That’s why some of the sites that cover digital matters have been sceptical, but I don’t see the harm of trying it. S & S will roll this out for hardcover and trade paperback books first, then add it to other books if the response is good.

I know this isn't the most earth-shattering innovation, but it shows a willingness to experiment that is most welcome from publishers, and perhaps it will give you some new ideas as well if you're self-publishing.

Probably out of ten experiments like this, eight will fail--but sometimes we need to endure those failures in order to find the two successes.

(My book, "Your Writing Coach" includes two chapters on marketing your work, covering both traditional approaches and guerrilla marketing methods. You can get it from Amazon or your other favorite bookseller.)